Coronal holes have long been suspected as key sources of solar winds, yet the mechanism behind the emergence of plasma streams from these regions remained enigmatic. The discovery of the picoflare jets offers a tantalizing glimpse into this intricate process that has puzzled researchers for years.
Lead author Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, elaborated on the significance of these findings. Chitta noted that while picoflare jets are diminutive in scale and energy compared to other solar phenomena, their cumulative impact is noteworthy. He highlighted, “The energy content of a single picoflare jet that lives for about 1 minute is equal to the average power consumed by about 10,000 households in the UK over an entire year.”
